Elsie Etheart (born)[1] is a Haitian journalist known for founding the newspaper Haïti en Marche.
Etheart was born in Haiti in the early 1940s. She had initially planned to become a doctor but instead studied journalism in Germany.[2] [3] While there, she worked for Voice of Germany in Cologne.[4]
She then returned to Haiti, where the news environment was opening slightly after the death of dictator François Duvalier She spent ten years reporting for Radio Métropole in Port-au-Prince.[5]
In 1980, Etheart was detained and then expelled by the government of Jean-Claude Duvalier along with many of her journalist colleagues. She settled in Miami and continued her work as a journalist there. Beginning in 1982, she and her longtime collaborator Marcus Garcia broadcast the news show "Chita Tande" in Haitian Creole on WLRN-FM.[6] Also with Garcia, in 1986, she co-founded the newspaper Haïti en Marche, which became a trusted source for members of the Haitian diaspora. Etheart served as co-editor of the publication.[7] [8] Due to this work, she was described as one of the "most trusted Haitian journalists in the diaspora." In 1990, she was awarded a Maria Moors Cabot Prize.
In the late 1990s, Etheart was able to return to Haiti and work as a journalist in Port-au-Prince.[9] While there, she helped establish the station Radio Mélodie.[10] [11]
Until his death in 2024, she was married to the sociologist Emmanuel Bernard Etheart, with whom she had two children.